Dozens of additional deaths linked to GM cars with faulty switches

​A new analysis suggests that more fatalities than originally reported may have resulted from faulty ignition switches used by General Motors in millions of cars sold during the last decade.

GM has gone on the record to acknowledge that 13 deaths have
occurred as a result of the flawed switches, which the
manufacturer knew for years were prone to abruptly cause affected
automobiles to shut down, seizing the vehicles' power steering,
power brakes and airbag deployment mechanism as a result.

This week, though, journalists at Reuters reported that their own independent
investigation has led them to believe that deaths amounting to
several times that figure — upwards of 74 fatalities, in fact —
may have been caused by those faulty switches.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that an analysis of statistics held
in the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) national
database of crash information reveals that 74 car accident deaths
between the years 2003 and 2010 occurred in GM cars with
since-recalled ignition switches, and are typical of the
incidents previously reported by the automaker.

According to Reuters, accidents in these GM cars were apparent at
a much higher rate than cars sold by competitors during that same
span.

“The final death toll associated with this safety defect is
not known to NHTSA, but we believe it’s likely that more than 13
lives were lost,” admitted NHTSA Acting Administrator David
Friedman.

“The news agency compared the incidence of this kind of
deadly accident in the Chevrolet Cobalt and the Saturn Ion, the
highest-profile cars in GM's recall of 2.6 million cars with
defective switches, against the records of three popular
small-car competitors: Ford Focus, Honda Civic and Toyota
Corolla,” Reuters reported. “The analysis found that the
frequency of such accidents in the Ion was nearly six times that
of the Corolla and twice that of the Focus.”

According to details in the federal database, the Saturn Ion had
5.9 such fatal crashes per 100,000 cars sold, with the Cobalt
being linked to with 4.1 out of the same sample. By comparison,
the Focus, Civic and Corolla were respectively linked to only
2.9, 1.6 and 1.0 fatal accidents, on average, per 100,00 cars
sold.

Reuters stopped short of saying that the GM accidents were
specifically linked to the faulty switches, however, but were
consistent with the fatal crashes previously acknowledged by the
auto maker.

“It is not clear how many of the deadly accidents identified
by Reuters involved defective ignition switches, because crash
reports typically do not include that data,” Ryan McNeill
and Paul Lienert wrote for the wire in summarizing the analysis.
“That leaves open the possibility that air bags may have
failed to deploy in some of the GM crashes for reasons other than
faulty switches.”

Also this week, the Center for Auto Safety advocacy group said
that GM has filed over 2,000 reports on injuries and deaths stemming
from accidents involving cars containing the since-recalled
switches, according to Bloomberg.

Our focus is on doing the right thing for customers — fixing
the recalled vehicles as quickly as possible, addressing our
civic and legal responsibilities and setting a new industry
standard for safety,” GM told Reuters in a statement.